Hello Symphonic, all right? Open for new songs? Because today we bring a new band that started this year 2019 and promises a lot to bring a very good sound when it comes to symphonic and progressive metal. With its first EP released in March 2019, Arkana Fen comes in a trilogy format with a concept story, divided into three parts into three separate EPs, each with three songs.
So far we have the first EP called Reborn from the Ashes, and will soon release the second and third part of the trilogy.
We talked with the three members of the band, to know the concept and theme of this trilogy of songs and learn more about the band itself, which for us with great joy has the Brazilian drummer.
Icaro Ravelo is the drummer and makes orchestral arrangements, Eric Murdarak is the guitarist and pianist and Ellie Kamphuis is the vocalist.
Stay with the interview:
Playfonic: How and when did the band start? What does the band name mean? Tell us a little about your story.
Arkana Fen:
Hello guys from Playfonic, first of all, we would like to thank you for the space you gave us here on your blog.
So the initial idea came up in mid-2013, but it was shelved by the lack of people who truly embraced the idea. Until one day Ravelo and his friend decided to work on their own songs outside of our bands of the time.
When we finished some songs, I started searching youtube for vocalists, until I found Ellie on a cover, which was curiously about Eric hahahaha.
She accepted the invitation and we decided to make it official until our first guitarist had a health problem and we replaced it with Eric. In October 2017 (if I’m not mistaken) came the training we have today.
Arkana was a name from another project I had, which derives from the word Arcane, which according to the dictionary means that either what is deeply secretive, mysterious, enigmatic, or what is incomprehensible cannot be unraveled. .
And Fen has something to do with places that store or hide treasures.
This is the view we have about the feelings.
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Playfonic: What is the central theme of the story behind the songs?
Arkana Fen: The central theme of Reborn from the Ashes is about triumph, about struggles and hardships.
Recognizing the dark and difficult things that happen in life and making the choice to face them and rise above them. I think it’s a feeling that many people can identify with on some level, it seemed a very appropriate theme for the beginning of Arkana Fen.
Playfonic: The songs have an amazing symphony to hear. We can perceive classical elements, typical heavy metal sounds and tribal and regional sounds. Tell us about the sound building process.
Arkana Fen:
Me, Ravelo, like to work by making association of ideas, so when I put together some pieces, it was easy to come up with an idea, we are from 3 countries with a very strong indigenous culture historically speaking, Brazil with the peoples Tupi, Tupiniquim, Tapajós, Goitacases, etc … in Mexico we have the Mayans and Aztecs and in Australia the Aborigines, so the first initiative was to use tribal percussion in some parts.
The issue of regional music comes from the fact that I always liked it, so I wanted to add this “new” element to the symphonic metal, which is not that unusual, but it was kind of hard to find the right places for each Brazilian element. I like to write the whole structure first and then Eric has been redoing or just improving the guitars, while all the voices are up to Ellie, because I think she has very high writing power and makes her more comfortable, since everything she sings has been created straight to her limit and by her, if something gets hard they already know who to blame.
Playfonic: For the singer. How do you take care of your voice? In addition to being beautiful and west, we noticed a creative use in singing. The tuning and vocal extension is notorious. An extremely high quality voice.
Arkana Fen: Thank you so much for your lovely words. In terms of caring for my voice I believe that, just like our physical body, our voice needs executions too. I have a workout routine for my voice that consists of breathing exercises and a variety of warm-ups.
I spent time studying and being trained in classical singing and although I did not identify myself as a classical singer, I believe this experience colored my voice and totally influenced my sound. I also think that releasing YouTube videos has helped me a lot in terms of development by challenging me to try new things and finding my own style within a song, even if it’s outside my comfort zone.
Playfonic: We noticed peculiar and pleasant sounds among the melodies. Something that brings us to objects and / or musical instruments that we can not identify, but we like very much. What sounds are these?
Arkana Fen:
It depends, we have many traditional instruments of Brazilian percussion, such as the deaf of samba and the maracatu tail (which are noticed during the Fallen from Grace solos, part that is made on top of the baião and xaxado), the famous Japanese taikos in some pieces of Reborn from the Ashes, etc.
In Fallen from Grace itself there is a viola instead of the well-known cello, because the idea was to do something more medieval in the intro that would match the music box and refer to the next song, Scarborough Fair. Ravelo used a lot of unconventional instruments, like a toy metallophone, a kind of very small metal marimba that kids usually use, a little egg, and some other things we don’t remember…
Lyric Video of the song Reborn from the Ashes:
Playfonic: Flames of a volcano forging a life. Fire burns matter while shaping the garments it protects and warms. The footsteps follow firmly between rocks and sparks. There is no stopping someone who is reborn from the ashes. The cover of the EP gives us all these sensations. What is the concept behind this art and what is the creative process that gave life to this story represented by the cover?
Arkana Fen: You got it right what we wanted to convey through art and how it correlates with song themes.
With art, we wanted it to be directly related to the title of the EP Reborn from the Ashes so naturally that we wanted a fiery color scheme. The woman’s figure represents a person at home in this harsh environment and surviving in a place that seems impossible, the mind itself.
Playfonic: Because they decided to work in EP form. Why choose this format? And what can we expect about the new releases?
Arkana Fen: The idea was to release a full album, but we had problems and we thought this would be our best option, and also has the fact that even being a full album, it would have this three act split automatically when listening:
- Fall
- Rebirth
- Rise
For the next releases as a band, we already have both parts of the trilogy finished and two more CDs (complete this time), the idea is to put even more Brazilian influence and bring two more complex themes to make the listener think even more about the issues. that revolve around our brief existence we call life. But for now part 2 of the trilogy is already being finalized and will bring the darkest theme so far and 3rd, the heaviest song and our most epic song (which has a slightly different style of Brazilian)
Playfonic: What are the main musical references for you?
Arkana Fen:
Ravelo – I love Brazilian music, like Hermeto Pascoal, Luiz Gonzaga, Sivuca and Araketu (laughs)
That’s why I always try to merge some of this into my songs. Inside metal has – Workshop G3, Dream Theater, Angra, Periphery, Architects and Avengend Sevenfold. It’s either too light or too heavy. Lots of soundtrack
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Ellie – In chronological order I have these 3 albums that changed my life:
American Idiot – Green Day
Cit of Evil – Avenged Sevenfold
Dark Passion Play – Nightwish
Soundtracks like Lord of the Rings
And one style of music I like that is kind of unexpected is Big Band Swing.
Playfonic: Last but not least. We would like you to leave a message for the playfonic readers and their fans.
Arkana Fen: First of all, we would like to thank you again for the space you gave us here at Playfonic.
To our readers, we thank you for taking the time and listening to our work, which makes us increasingly willing to share new experiences with you. Stay tuned for news coming soon, because it will be epic =)
Thanks so much for the support, Leandro and all the blog team, you guys are amazing.
To the next.
You can listen to their songs on Spotify and the other platforms:
Spotify Arkana Fen
Interview and Art Direction by:
Interview and Illustration by:
